Tag Archives: Mexico

Tim Howard has said that he doesn’t think the officiating was too fair in the loss vs Mexico yesterday.Says SI.com:

“It seems like when we come to a place like this, the most intimidated person in the stadium is the referee,” said goalkeeper Tim Howard after the USA’s 2-1 loss to Mexico. “The bar was probably tilted in their favor, and that’s unfortunate because it was a hard-fought game. We went in hard, they went in hard, and for some reason, we keep coming out with the foul.”

I don’t like to blame the Ref’s usually, just because its not the right thing to do and you can’t fix it or really prove anything, but the fact that we lost Onyewu for the next game is very frustrating. Also we have to deal with the fact that its everyone against the US in every aspect of our games.

So today is the big game! The game is at 3pm and will be shown on Mun2 in English and Telemundo in Spanish. There will be a pregame show on ESPN the first ever pre-game show they do for a soccer game that they are not actually showing. If you are like me than you do not get Mun2 (although they are adding it to all satellite customers for the game today free) because I have cable. So I will be out and not able to add posts about the game today. I will be able to comment though and will try to update that way. Go USA!!!

So there’s a website called Sports Club Stats that does the odds for making the World Cup out of the CONCACAF region. They say that our current odds of making the WC are 95.5% while our chance of finishing number 1 is 31%. There are some neat charts and tables but this one shows the implications of our game with Mexico tomorrow:

Wednesday, 8/12

Mexico

vs

USA

4:00 PM

Chance in World Cup if:

Mexico wins

USA wins

Draw

Mexico

66.1

30.7

42.7

El Salvador

26.6

37.4

33.3

Honduras

65.3

75.6

72.0

USA

89.3

99.4

96.7

T & T

4.1

7.5

6.1

Costa Rica

98.6

99.4

99.2

So pretty much if we beat Mexico tomorrow were in almost for sure and their odds are very bad. If we lose they are probably going to make it, and we are still sitting pretty well but a little less certain. If we draw our odds are pretty great as well. So while tomorrow is very important for pride and revenge, it is not the most important game for us in terms of the WC. But it is for Mexico…

To me it seems that it should be 1 D player and one Forward/Midfielder. I don’t Bob Bradley would call a player from overseas to come back if they were not going to play so that only leaves the MLS guys to eliminate. For the D that is Bornstein or Marshall. Of these I think it is more likely to be Marshall but I’ll put it at 60% Marshall and 40% Bornstein.

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For the F/M it is between Casey, Ching and Holden. I don’t think it will be Holden because both Donovan and Dempsey can move up to play Forward if need be. For Casey and Ching, while Casey played in the Confed Cup and Ching didn’t, Casey has been hot scoring a Hat-Trick this week, and while considering Ching has been hurt, I still see Casey as the most likely to be left off. Ching just has so much experience and in a game in Azteca experience could play a big role. I will put the odds at Casey 60% Ching 30% and Holden 10%.

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What do you think? Who should be left off? Who will be left off?

U.S. Soccer has been informed of a change in the referee crew that will officiate Wednesday’s match. Roberto Moreno of Panama will now run the middle, replacing Joel Aguilar of El Salvador. Fans who followed the Gold Cup will remember that Aguilar served as the referee in the 1-1 draw between Mexico and Panama from the group phase in which Mexico coach Javier Aguierre and Panama midfielder Ricardo Phillips were sent off, with the Mexican manager receiving a subsequent three-match ban from the sidelines.

You would think that this is a good change for the US, as Aguierre kicked the Panama player and there is now a ref from Panama. Also the same things apply that Panama has a better chance to get in through the 4th spot than passing the US…

So I have been reading some reports on how Mexico City is going to affect the team and its is pretty annoying. I almost want our players to forfiet so they dont have to go get sick and hurt playing a game that will be unfairly difficult for them. But they can take it and I still expect great things. From what I found:

Mexico City’s air has gone from among the world’s cleanest to among the dirtiest in the span of a generation. Novelist Carlos Fuentes first novel took place here in 1959 and was entitled “Where the air is clear” – a title he has said is ironic considering the city’s now –soupy environment.
The average visibility of some 100 km in 1940s is down to about 1.5 km. Snow-capped volcanoes (Popocatepetl, Ixtacihuatl, and Paricutin) that were once parts of the landscape are now visible only rarely (fig.1.2). And levels of almost any pollutant like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) now regularly break international standards by two to three times. Levels of ozone (O3), a pollutant that protects us from solar radiation in the upper atmosphere but is dangerous to breathe, are twice as high here as the maximum allowed limit for one hour a year and this occurs several hours per day every day (fig.1.1).

It is also stated that the reason that Mexico moved the game from a night start to the now 3pm start is that, at 3pm Mexico city is the hottest, expected around 100 F, and will most likely give the advantage to Mexico who has been training and obviously lives there. Also the 3 pm start means we have to get there the night before, while it has been stated that to combat the smog it is best to get there the same morning and spend the least time possible affected. Whatever happens though we just have to play our game and hope for rain…

So Ives Galarcep of ESPN is reporting that Guardado of Mexico has confidently guaranteed a 3-0 win for Mexico in Wednesday’s qualifying match vs the US.

“Of course we will win, 3-0,” Guardado said. “We have players of high quality and you can see that the team has prepared well, now there is only the question of showing it on the field on Wednesday.”

Also he reports that Guillermo Ochoa has said that Mexico is better both physically and soccer-wise.

“(The United States) is a rival of respect, that you must be careful of, but it is a rival we know, whose style we know,” Ochoa said. “We know that physically, and soccer-wise, we are better, so we just have to apply that on the field and do our talking on the field.”

These statements are both very offensive and shows the lack of class that the Mexican players seem to have. This only makes me want to beat them that much worse. What do you think? Were those statements out of line, or are they right in saying that the 30th ranked Mexico team is really better than the 12th ranked US team. I think we can only have an idea after the game on Wednesday but more so after the qualifying ends.